Hannelore Wass

A PERSPECTIVE ON THE CURRENT STATE OF DEATH EDUCATION

The author offers some views on the current state of death education with focus on the sparing attention given the death education of health professionals and of grief counselors. There is need for improved integration of the knowledge accumulated in the study of death, dying, and bereavement into the basic curricula of the parent disciplines and professional schools. Facilitation of personal engagement with the issue of mortality is an important component of the educative process. Various assessment problems are outlined and some suggestions for improvements are offered. The death education needs of various groups, including school age children and older adults, are noted. The article contains a list of references, many not cited in the text, recommended for an extensive review of developments in death education.

PORTRAYAL OF THE ELDERLY IN THE MEDIA: A LITERATURE REVIEW AND IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL GERONTOLOGISTS

Negative stereotyping of the elderly has been identified as a significant social issue. The mass media are a potent source of socialization and may shape attitudes, especially those of children, toward the elderly. A number of studies have been done to investigate the portrayal of the elderly in the mass media. This study was undertaken to summarize and synthesize their findings. Twenty‐eight empirical studies, based on analyses of television characters and characters in print media, including childrens books, magazines, and basal readers series, were reviewed. The elderly, especially older women, were widely under‐represented, with characterizations failing to reflect the size and proportions of the elderly population in the United States. The majority of the studies found that the elderly were generally depicted in a negative light and that elderly characters were rarely cast in major roles or fully developed. Several implications for educational gerontologists are discussed.

Death education and grief/suicide intervention in the public schools

Abstract We surveyed a stratified random sample of 423 public schools, from prekindergarten through 12th grade, with respect to three death-related programs. Using categorical and open-ended questions, we asked the respondents about the structure and characteristics of the programs, types of curriculum materials, and training of personnel. The schools that responded were distributed similarly to the national population by region. The national estimate for schools offering a course or unit on general death education was 11%, 17% offered a grief education/support program, and 25% had suicide prevention/intervention programs. Senior high schools in the midwest had the highest proportions of death-related programs. Of the few death education programs offered, most are taught as part of a health education course and are two weeks or less in duration. Most of the grief and suicide programs are crisis oriented, and typically involve counselors or a team of school staff members. Opportunities for in-service educa...

Adolescents' Interest in and Views of Destructive Themes in Rock Music.

In a survey of rock music preferences and views on themes about homicide, satanism, and suicide (HSS), 694 middle and high school students were administered a questionnaire of structured and open-ended questions. Nine percent of the middle school students, 17 percent of the rural and 24 percent of the urban high school students were HSS rock fans. Three-fourths of these fans were males and nearly all were white. HSS fans more often claimed to know all the lyrics of their favorite songs than the non-HSS rock fans. HSS fans more often said young children should be permitted to listen to rock music with destructive themes and fewer of them believed that adolscents might commit murder or suicide after having listened to such songs. A large proportion of the students share the concern of adult citizens and professional groups about destructive lyrics in rock music and their effects.

Swedish and U.S. children's thinking about death: A qualitative study and cross-cultural comparison

The objective of this study was two-fold: (a) to investigate the qualitative differences in childrens death-related thinking regardless of nationality, and (b) to discover what qualitative differe ...

Factors affecting Adolescents' behavior and attitudes toward destructive rock lyrics

In a study of rock music preferences, listening/watching behavior, and views on destructive rock lyrics, 894 adolescents in grades 9 through 12 in rural, urban, suburban public, and metropolitan pa...

Communicating with dying children and their siblings: A retrospective analysis

Abstract Recognition that children over age 4 with fatal illnesses generally anticipate their death has prompted more open communication between them and the adults caring for them. We investigated factors influencing the extent and success of such communication between parents, dying children, and their siblings, using data provided by 77 mothers who are members of the Compassionate Friends organization. We found that those mothers who talked more freely with dying children also did so with the siblings and that communication was more open with older than with younger children. This dialogue was most helpful for both the dying children and their siblings if the former were mostly at home immediately before death, if there was extensive and specific discussion about death and dying, when a parent was the major discussant, and if the familys religious faith was also a significant source of support. Following such discussions the emotional state of the dying children and the siblings contrasted markedly, w...

Ethnic differences in death anxiety among the elderly

The Dickstein Death Concern Scale was used to examine the death anxieties of a sample of elderly people in north and central Florida consisting of whites and blacks, males and females. Analysis of the data revealed that black elderly males display the greatest death anxiety, followed in decreasing order by black females, white females, and white males. Analysis of variance yielded a statistically significant main effect attributable to race. The overall effects attributed to sex were not significant, nor were there any significant interactions. The implications of these findings for practicing counselors were considered.

Similarities and Dissimilarities in Attitudes toward Death in a Population of Older Persons.

The responses of one hundred and seventy-one elderly persons selected from three different types of residence communities to an abbreviated form of the Shneidman death questionnaire were analysed. In addition to some expected similarities, a number of significant differences were found. These differences appear to be related to educational level, type of residence community (rural, urban), and income level. Thus it was shown that certain life parameters outweigh the commonality of advanced age in influencing the attitudes of elderly persons toward certain aspects of death and dying. Educational and other implications of the results are discussed.

VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF ELDERLY PERSONS CONCERNING DEATH

Using a series of 23 items from the Shneidman questionnaire, the views of three groups of elderly persons (one rural group, one group consisting of members of an affluent retirement community, and one group composed of members of a small town AARP chapter) concerning various aspects of death and dying were examined and compared with the views of a national sample of Psychology Today readers as surveyed by Shneidman. As predicted, the elderly group surveyed in this study exhibited more of the traditional points of view than did the PT group; there were, however, some surprising commonalities between the two groups. The results are discussed and their implications for education examined. The study shows that the reluctance of people to discuss death and dying with elderly persons because of concern that such discussion would be upsetting is unfounded. The study also makes clear that current funeral practices are not consonant with the wishes of many elderly people and thus points to the need for education c...